Just Say Goodbye
by Mercs2Girl
Summary: When the unthinkable happens to Alice, Claire can only do one thing; say her final goodbyes to the woman she had fallen in love with.


**A/N: I don't even know how I managed to write this but I guess being a little emotionally unstable at the time would help. I had to vent somehow, and here it is. **

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><p>Just Say Goodbye<p>

"Alice! No, no don't do this to me!" The brunette was down on her side, crumpled in a pile after using all that she had left to finally fight off the horde of undead that had been pursing us for the past mile. Out of breath, I still screamed her name in the hopes she'd wake up. What had hit her, I wasn't even sure, maybe the exertion of fighting for both of us finally got to her. I couldn't figure it out. What happened to these powers of hers? Was she hiding something from me? What had happened to her when she was gone for those long, cold, eighteen months?

We were in Northern California, some small town in the middle of nowhere. We had stopped the plane to find fuel, and instead, found hundreds of the undead, listlessly walking and moaning down the streets. Alice had taken them on with her usual vigour, slicing them to pieces with her kukri blades. I followed behind, still using the pump action rifle I had had with me in Nevada. The shells were smaller than the shotgun's and they were easier to pack. We had fought through the horde, mostly with Alice leaving a wake behind her. I was just the backup to the carnage and the after effect. Then, it happened. A yelp of pain, a roar almost, escaped from Alice's lips, and I saw her go down mid stride. Panic gripped my throat, but I knew I had to fight off the rest of the infected that were coming straight for us.

I shot the first four rounds as best I could; only hitting three of them in the head. I scrambled back, losing my footing. I fell back to the concrete hard, but that didn't make me lose focus. My life and Alice's was on the line. Now was not the time to give up. Instead of dealing with the rifle, I grabbed the Glock I had holstered on my hip, and quickly dispatched the rest of the undead, dropping them like flies. I got to my feet, and by the time I reached Alice, she was out cold, no signs of life in her body. I felt a well of emotion build at the back of my throat, my eyes stinging. No, no…this couldn't be happening.

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><p>"Alice…" I said softly, my breath strained. We had both been so exhausted, but she had been so damned determined to get to Los Angeles by night fall. She never gave up. But why she had been taken down so easily had me worried. I thought she had powers. What happened to those? "Alice?" I called again, putting my fingers to the artery in her neck, checking for a pulse. She had one, boy did she ever. It was there, but it was beating too fast. She wasn't dead, but something was wrong. Something I had no idea about. "Alice, please…please wake up…" I pleaded, hoping she could hear me at least. Tears began to sting my eyes. This was much too much. After all that we had done together, the mere thought of losing each other was terrible. Yet, here she was, lying on the cold sidewalk in front of me. To be honest, I had always thought it would have been me lying there. I was the normal human. Alice…Alice was the half infected 'freak' as she called it. Umbrella's most successful <em>Project<em>.

Suddenly, I felt her rough and calloused hand grab my forearm, and I nearly had a heart attack, gasping in surprise. "Claire…" She croaked out. Her right hand, I noticed, was set over her ribs on the left side, towards her stomach. It seemed to be clamped down pretty tight. She squeezed my arm, and I leaned in closer so she wouldn't have to strain her voice. "Just…say goodbye."

"What?" I retorted, giving her a look. Her piercingly blue eyes stared up at me, and I noticed the whites of her eyes had suddenly become bloodshot, and dark circles were under them.

"It's…it's mutating." She replied, her voice even raspier than normal. I took her hand in mine, and felt the tears welling up in my eyes. We had talked about this once, but never imagined that it could happen. She had often pondered what would happen if she got bit by one of the undead. I swallowed, and then I saw it; the blood leaking out from under her right hand.

"Alice…Oh god, no. No no…."

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><p>Alice grunted, presumably in pain. I couldn't bear to see her like this. She had been my rock, the one who I always looked to when things were tough, whether it was back in the desert, or in Alaska. Alice had been the one to keep me going when I thought hope was lost. She didn't talk much, but when she did, she always, always said the right thing. I…I loved her. I did. Now she was dying or something in front of me, and I couldn't take it. I scrambled through the backpack I had, trying to find gauze or something to stop the bleeding, and only came up short, finding an extra shirt. I ripped it into squares, and then tried to move her hand. She refused. "Alice, come on…Please, let me help you."<p>

"Claire, it's too late…"

"No, it's not. Please, just, let me…"

"_Claire…" _She stated sternly, almost growling. "It's too late. I'm done." She started coughing, her whole body racking with it. I held her hand tighter. She was not going to go through this alone.

Alice took in short breaths, her eyes closing again. I eventually got her to move her hand when she was coughing, and the sight before my eyes was gruesome. She looked like she had been bit at least twice on the side of her ribs, or just below them. Her black tee shirt had been mangled in the process, and her skin was soaked in dark red blood. Around the wound, from what I could tell, there was purple bruising of sorts. Or maybe not. I gently wiped at some of the blood, and that bruising was not what I thought it to be. It was infection, and it was spreading over Alice's ribs at too high a rate. I pressed the ripped shirt to the wound, at least trying to keep her from bleeding out. "Alice…how is this happening?" I asked softly. The grip on my left hand was loosening bit by bit. I could tell I was losing her as the sky above me began to darken.

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><p>"The serum…"<p>

"What serum?"

"Wesker, he injected it in me back in Tokyo. It neutralised the T Virus in my body…" Alice explained through gritted teeth. She grunted again. I wasn't sure if it was the pain from the actual bite, or the pain of the infection. What did this all mean? She didn't have her powers all this time? Why didn't she tell me? I thought we had been close enough to tell each other everything. Maybe I had thought wrong, or maybe she didn't want to tell me in case I would've worried too much. Whatever the reason, I hated her for it. If only I had known, we could have been more careful. This wouldn't have happened. I sniffled back more tears. This was not how I wanted it to end, not for either of us. I loved her too much to let her go. Not now…

"What's happening?" I asked, barely croaking it out to a whisper. I couldn't take this. She was dying or something. All of the memories we had shared together from our first night in the back of my Hummer truck, to reuniting in Alaska, all of it was going through my head. I knew our time had been short together, but I knew, and she knew it too that the love we had was something no one could break, aside from death.

"I don't know…." She paused, opening her eyes half way. The redness was even worse now, and I could see the purple creeping up her collar bone. She licked her lips, trying to speak again, when another series of coughs stopped her. I sat flat down on the pavement and helped her to sit up, wrapping my other arm around her back. She turned her head to look at me, and I could tell there were tears in her eyes. "I think…I think the virus is…taking over."

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><p>"T-Taking over? What do you mean?" I asked, hoping she could clarify. If I had to put her down... Oh God, I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to. No. She'd have to do it herself. There was no way I could shoot the woman who I believed to be the love of my life.<p>

"It's….it's mutating. I…I'm becoming…something else." She panted, groaning in pain again. I could feel her heart beating under my hand in the bite wound. "Some of the Virus must still be in my system…"

"Alice, what do you want me to do?"

"Claire…" She looked at me, shaking a little now. "I want you to just say goodbye to me."

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><p>I looked back at her, my eyes going wide, jaw hanging open. This couldn't be happening. Surely, there had to be a way to save her. There had to be! "Alice, please, no, I want to stay here."<p>

"It's going to start taking over me, and when that happens…I'm not going to be me anymore. You know that." She warned, taking my hand in hers off the wound. At this point, I think she was past caring. "I love you, I do, but…I'm telling you now, say your goodbyes because…I'm not going to be…" She stopped midsentence, crying out in pain. She began to feel cold, way too cold. I knew this was happening, and it was happening out of my control. There was no cure. Tears rolled down my cheeks, but I held Alice as close as I could. She took in sharp, pained breaths, her fists clenching. The purple was now creeping up her neck, and I could see the carotid artery in her neck pulsating, and turning into a darker purple, making it stand out. This was bad.

"Alice, I…I love you…" I wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but I leaned in to kiss her one last time. She didn't pull back, but she didn't really reciprocate either. That was all right with me. She still had that ever familiar taste to her lips, the one I loved to have on my tongue first thing in the morning, or right before bed, or even just during the middle of the day when we had nothing else to do. I was going to miss that. All of that. Every single moment we spent together, I was going to miss it. Never again was I going to let anyone in. In a world like this, where death seems to linger around the corner, it's no place to find love. It only ends in heartbreak.

"I love you too Claire…" The brunette replied very, very softly. Had I not been so close, I never would have heard it. I held Alice close to me one last time, kissing her forehead before easing her out of my arms. I let her lay back on the sidewalk as I stood to my feet. She looked up at me, and slowly shoved her belt of ammo, the kukri blades, and her shot guns towards me.

"Take it. You'll…need it more than me." I nodded, and slung the holsters over my back. She had a pleading look in her eyes, and I was so tempted to end it for her.

"Al…" I used the nickname I had given her back in Nevada. I motioned with my pistol as I took it out of my holster. "Do you want me to…"

"Give it…to me." Alice demanded. I did as she asked, handing her the black handgun. Our finger tips touched one more time as I slowly let go of my weapon. "Go…get out of here. You…don't want to see me do this." With one last whimper, I turned around, and started walking to where we had parked the red biplane off in a field. I glanced back, thinking to myself, '_Alice…I love you, and I will see you again someday.'_

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><p>I had just opened the hatch of the biplane, looking up at the full moon in the night sky when I heard the familiar gunshot from the Glock 17. It felt like it had gone through Alice and straight through my heart. I got in the plane, but instead of just leaving, I finally let out my sobs. Never before had I realised just how in love I was with Alice Abernathy, until now that she was gone. Her words echoed in my head, and those very words would haunt me until the day I died.<p>

"_Claire, I just want you to say goodbye to me…_"


End file.
